-Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)
If you read your Bible regularly, you’ve probably got a few “favorite” verses or chapters that really stand out to you personally, that really just speak to you on a deep and emotional level. I’ve got a few: I like Job 33, because it’s basically “my story” and details how God intercedes for the lives of men. I like the Kings and the Chronicles just because when I was a kid, those were some of the most exciting and action packed. I like the book of Nehemiah because he’s just so darn scrappy and feisty, but also humble enough to plead with God regularly to “remember me for the good”. I’m sure we’ve each got our special bits, but the reading in Isaiah 42 today is my absolute favorite chapter in the whole Bible.
Why is that, you ask? Well, lucky day kids, I’m going to tell you. It has been very publicly stated on a number of occasions that when I was a young lad I was quite a scrappy ne’er-do-well: a miscreant, hooligan, a rogue. I was, not to put too fine a point on it, dumber than a box of rocks: completely ignoring God and seeking only how best to fulfill my own lusts and desires. It was inevitable on the path that I was travelling that I would run into trouble, and I did: much, much bigger trouble than I was expecting, or had the ability to handle on my own. Luckily for me (and for you too), we’ve got a great big God who’s exponentially bigger and more powerful than …well, anything. Including Big Trouble, and the potentially fatal fingers that it sometimes attempts to clutch you with.
I won’t belabor the depths of my stupidity, but I will say that as a result of my Actions (and attitude), there was a time in my youth (when I was about 25) that I was going to get a hard introduction to Consequences, and as a result was going to probably wake up dead in a hole, six feet from the rest of my life. Things were not looking good for the home team (for clarification, I am the home team in that analogy), so I fled for my life. I left in my wake Big Trouble, and Big Trouble was angry, murderously angry, and seeking a reunion. I was going to die.
So I started digging deeply into scripture, as if my life depended on it (it did), looking for an out, hoping that God would save me. Obviously, He did (this is now over 30 years later), but at the time it was a very dark season for me: filled with fear and trepidation, and expecting at any moment to die. I was already a pretty crazy lad, my previous lifestyle hadn’t helped that in any way, and add to that the constant fear and threat of being murdered at any moment and it begins to wear on one’s psyche and sanity.
Think for a moment of the most stressful event that’s ever happened to you, a time when you were in actual danger. Now stretch that moment out, and imagine that you had that tension, that stress, that apprehension every second, every minute, every hour: day after day, then week after week, then month after month. That constant level of tension will drive you insane. That’s where I was at. Do you know what saved me from going absolutely bonkers?
Isaiah 42, when it is talking about the servant that God has chosen (The Messiah, or Christ), specifically this bit in verse 3: “3 A crushed reed He will not break And a faintly burning wick He will not extinguish;” (LSB). Every time I read that, I knew that the Christ would not allow me to be snuffed at that time, because I was that reed that was crushed in spirit, I was that candle that was burning low and flickering in my faith, but I was seeking God’s will and this reassured me that His servant the Christ would not break me or extinguish me nor allow it to happen by the hand of another. So I kept praying, and reading scripture. Slowly, very slowly, some of the crazy started to leach away, and I began to be restored, to see my folly, and the path that God wanted me to walk.
For the longest time leading up to that moment, I was blind. Spiritually blind, street smart but God stupid. I knew all the right things about all the wrong things. Isaiah 42:3 helped me get refocused, to know that even if I was a smouldering wick that I would at least get an opportunity to burn brightly, so long as I was trying. Then I read Isaiah 42:16, and it was like fireworks went off in my head, and I knew that our God was a great and merciful God. This is, by the way, my singular favorite verse in the entirety of the bible:
“16 I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, In paths they do not know I will guide them.
I will make darkness into light before them And rugged places into plains.
These are the things I will do, And I will not forsake them.” (LSB)
That’s exactly what He did, for me. I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful this is for me, because I was that (spiritually) blind guy, and He sure did lead me by a way I did not know, and He guided me in paths I had no idea even existed: to safety, and life. The darkness that I was living in was slowly illuminated, and the obstacles that were the rugged places were miraculously removed from my path. God said that He would do these things, and that He would not forsake me and He kept His promise. Why? No clue, I wasn’t worth it at the time, but He did. Fiercely.
Then, my dad went blind, and God gave me a gentle slap in the face to remind me of some things, and to remember some of the words my mouth had spoken earlier when He saved me.
When I say my dad went blind, I mean literally blind, not spiritually blind, and you know what? That verse means even more to me today, because: “16 I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, In paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness into light before them And rugged places into plains. These are the things I will do, And I will not forsake them.” (Isa 42:16 LSB). I was a complete idiot. I was a jerk. I was not a nice guy, but my dad…my dad is amazing. So is my mom. They have both been faithful servants to the living God since before my birth, and humble me with their faith. How much more will our faithful God, who never lies nor abandons His children, lead my blind father by a way that he doesn’t know? How much more will He turn the darkness into light before my father, and make the rough places smooth where he walks? How much more will he not forsake my father, the faithful servant?
I take great comfort and solace in knowing that our God never lies. Lead us, Father God, even if it is by a way we do not know. I have died now once already, and I no longer fear death. I fear God. If Big Trouble ever does come to speak to me about the sins of my youth, I hope I get the chance to tell it everything God has done for me, and what an awesome God He is before I die.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
- What is/are YOUR favorite verse(s), and why does it speak to you? Take a moment and reflect on the circumstances which endeared it to you, and praise God.
- Is there a specific verse in scripture that has carried you through a particularly difficult time? What was it, and how did God act to help you in that moment?
- Have you ever considered how amazing it is that even when we are dumb and completely unworthy of redemption, our God is faithful and restores us for His own name’s sake?
PRAYER
Abba, Father, My God, thank you. You have been faithful even when I was not. You saw value in me when even I did not. You paid the ransom for me. I am unworthy of the favor shown me. The price was too high, My God. Please forgive me, and lead me in a way that I have not known, to Your glory, and for Your name’s sake. In Jesus name, Amen.
